Author Dave Eggers Cops $250,000 Heinz Award - washingtonpost.com

Author Dave Eggers Cops $250,000 Heinz Award - washingtonpost.com: "Author, philanthropist and literary entrepreneur Dave Eggers has become the youngest person ever to win one of the annual $250,000 awards from the Heinz Family Foundation.

Eggers, 37, used earnings from his autobiographical 2000 bestseller 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius' to launch 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center in San Francisco for children ages 6 to 18. Since then, the center has replicated itself in five other cities, with another branch scheduled to open this fall in Boston.

"I think of it as a validation of the work that 826 does," a grateful Eggers said in an interview. He said the $250,000 would be split evenly among the seven centers."